MLB '10
 

The deals are done, spring has sprung, and it's time for Dodger baseball.

Man, I had a heart attack when I heard that Vin Scully was in the hospital this weekend. And yeah, I teared up a little yesterday when he signed on to the broadcast and addressed the news of his fall with exactly the kind of humble, classy statement that makes him the best of the best. I've already resigned myself to the fact that he's going to be long retired by the time T's old enough to care about baseball, but I'm not ready for him to be gone just yet.

As for the season, I'm starting out with low expectations for the Dodgers. They definitely have potential to prove me wrong, but they've got 2 huge question marks that I can see. The elephant in the room is pitching of course. I almost wish they'd just stop endlessly auditioning people for the starting slots and instead locked it down and said, "Look, these are our 5. They aren't perfect, but we're going to invest the confidence and training time to improve them." It just feels like they're wasting a lot of time and energy hoping that one of them will get lucky and suddenly become an ace rather than working with a smaller # to improve them.

The less obvious problem is at catcher. It's not getting much attention, but Martin's injury kinda exposes their lack of depth. Not that Asmus isn't a good 2nd option. But there's no 3rd option. I know he doesn't want to admit it, no catcher ever does, but Martin needs more rest than he gets. Asmus shouldn't have to handle that much extra work and, assuming Martin is staying on-form, is an offensive downgrade when he's in there. They need a 3rd option, a fresh young catcher who can come in against an opponent where they can afford a defensive downgrade (Martin and Asmus are both top-notch defensively), but benefit from an offensive spark. And they just don't have it. And that's not even addressing the bind they'll be in if (and when) Martin or Asmus goes down with injury in the middle of the season.

Maybe they'll get lucky and the pitching will click. Manny's going to be fighting for free agent value, Kemp and Ethier are going to be looking to prove that last season wasn't a fluke. Loney needs to step up. If that all comes together, they've got the pieces to be great. But it's a lot of ifs.

Maybe with Manny off the books next season they'll be able to afford a pitching upgrade. Hopefully they'll also be able to retain the rest of the pieces also.

My office is right across the highway from the new Diamondbacks spring training facility. I can see the construction from my window. Supposed to be done for next season.

That's about all I got on this subject.

I'm curious, have you noticed an increase in Dodger and Whitesox interest in your area since the debut of Camelback ranch last season?

Human zambonies are fun to watch.

Well, Camelback Ranch is on the complete other side of the Valley from me....I'm east side, and that facility is west side (some 30 miles of freeway driving away). Around me is all Giants and Cubs. So, no....haven't seen anything of the sort, but that's a function of location, I'm sure.

Heh, see there's the difference between AZ and CA. 30 miles? That's closer than I've ever lived to Dodger Stadium.

Darn... I was hoping that Gagne was going to have better success with his comeback.

I wish him the best: he was fun to have around before the surgery.

As much as I liked Gagne when he was on the Dodgers, I had little hope for his return. His elbow just can't handle the crazy stress he puts on it when he goes all out, and he proved time and again while on the Dodgers that he's ONLY effective when he can go all out. He's not a finesse pitcher and never will be.

Oh, I know. I wasn't holding out much realistic hope either. I was just fantasizing.

Arizona residents are primarily Cubs and Diamondback fans. The people coming in to town for spring training for those teams will go where the teams are. They have no reason to come onto this side of town. I had misunderstood your question as looking for an influx of fans from out of town, but you were wondering about locals.

With the DBacks here, I don't really ever foresee many fans of other teams residing here except the previously mentioned contingent of Cubs fans that have been here loinger than dirt.